Wired!

4 comments to Wired!

I am from India settled in Canada. I have been raised in the Lord Rama’s heartland.
I read about Sita Sings the Blues in Wired. Saw the trailer.
First, it was very nicely done. Power of allegory and drawing for different sources and compiling it in this package is great.
Since Ramayan runs in my veins, and the fact that indians have an opinion on everything, I want to talk to you about something.
Lord Rama is called Maryada purushottam. Maryada can be roughly translated as dignified or upholder of dignity. Purushottam is derived from purush (male) and uttam (par excellence). The reason for this is that through Rama’s story, ideal behavior has been demonstrated. Every incident in the story illustrates that. When he is asked to goto the forest, he asks Sitaji to not accompany him as the life in the forest is going to be hard. But she chooses to – as she had vowed to be with him in good or bad times.
Now to the topic of him leaving her – There are two aspects of leaving some one – physically and spiritually/from the soul. Lord Rama never left Sitaji in the second sense. In the part of the story where Sitaji leaves, he spends the rest of his life sleeping on a grass bed and eating raw roots (just as he imagined Sitaji would be doing after leaving from him). However in doing so, he demonstrates how a good ruler should behave. He demonstrates that a ruler of people must be decisive, and fair (even harsh to his own family) for the good of the people.
We can talk a lot about this from a philosjophy / spiritual perspective.
I dont mind the interpretation that you have taken – it is a common one. I just hope you understand the context and consciously choose this interpretation.

Thanks Ashish. This is why I really want people to see the movie – the movie discusses all this, and more. Through the unscripted voices of the shadow puppets, it actually presents multiple interpretations of and perspectives on the Ramayana, including the one above.